"Inspiring & motivating young children to enjoy the world of ballet & dance through imagination & play"

Tag Archives: Dance

The brand new ‘Dance With Twinklesteps’ syllabus is now gaining momentum around the United Kingdom with classes starting up in Scotland, England and Wales. Lots of happy 3-5 year olds are enjoying the world of ballet and dance through imagination and play: looking for the Goblin, exploring Twinklesteps’ garden and lots, lots more. We also have classes starting up in Portugal as well as teachers across Europe who are interested in using the Syllabus – fantastic! We were thrilled to get this feedback from two of our new dance teachers:

“Classes are going brilliantly! Thank you so much for creating an excellent Ballet programme!!! The kids love it and everyone is commenting on it.” Justeen Randall, Principal of Razzle Dazzle Performers

“Lessons are going great. Children are enjoying them. We read a couple of pages of the story a lesson and then incorporate a different exercise or 2! We love the story!!” Katie Readman, KTZ DANCE

We also had this lovely feedback from one of our Dance With Twinklesteps children who was asked by her mum which ballet class she wanted to go to:

“I want to be a Fairy Ballerina just like Twinklesteps so I want to come to Twinklesteps classes.”

To give you a real feel for the content of the ballet classes and the imagination and play elements we’re aiming for, we thought we’d share some photos. These photos are from the DVD, which comes with the Dance With Twinklesteps syllabus. They hopefully give you an idea of the kind of exercises the programme contains:

Twinklesteps’ Garden: the children visiting the fairy houses in Twinklesteps’ garden.

Sparkly toes

Twinkle Twinkle little star

Twinklesteps and some of the birds looking for the Goblin

Elves Making Music

Twinklesteps Storytime

Dance With Twinklesteps aims to encourage children to enjoy the world of ballet and dance through a syllabus they’ll fall in love with. Yvonne MacGregor (Twinklesteps Director) and Stephanie Gardner (Musician and Composer) who developed Dance With Twinklesteps, both have a special interest in teaching young children, with the aim of developing a love of music and dance through imagination and play:

“We wrote ‘Dance with Twinklesteps’ with the view to introducing very young children, in a fun and playful way, to the world of dance and in particular-ballet. It’s fantastic to hear such lovely feedback from some of the teachers saying that their classes are going really well and that the children are loving them. We are delighted that teachers are embracing and capturing the whole concept of imagination and play, involving the Twinklesteps character and her story book’- which is what we hoped they would do. We hope everyone will enjoy dancing with Twinklesteps as much as we have enjoyed creating her little dances and music.” Yvonne and Stephanie.

Contact us at info@twinklesteps.com if you’d like to find out more or teach the Dance With Twinklesteps programme in your dance school. Read more about the programme here.

The season of orange pumpkins, frosty windows, smokey bonfires and cinder toffee is upon us, which means Halloween is hiding just around the corner – wa ha haaaa! We throught it would be fun to run a colouring in competition in the run up to Halloween to give your children the chance to win a pair of our beautiful light-up ballet shoes to dance the wintery evenings away in. Here they are with a quote from one happy wearer:

And here’s Twinklesteps with her light up shoes:

To enter the competition, all you have to do is print out our Halloween colouring in picture from our website (http://games.twinklesteps.com/Haloween.pdf), ask your child (aged 3-8 years) to colour it in by Halloween (31st October) and email a photo or scan of the finished picture to info@twinklesteps.com. You can also enter via our Facebook page. Here’s Halloween colouring in image, which you can download here: http://games.twinklesteps.com/Haloween.pdf.

We hope your child has lots of fun colouring, sticking, collaging or whatever they feel inspired to do. The winner will be announced on Monday 2nd November (UK entrants only please aged 3-8 years).

We can’t wait to see your entries so start emailing them into us at info@twinklesteps.com or upload to our Facebook competition page here. We’ll put the entries together in a new Facebook photo album ‘Twinklesteps Halloween Colouring in Competition 2015’.

Exciting news! We’re delighted to announce that our brand new programme for 3-5 year olds ‘Dance With Twinklesteps‘ will be launching on Thursday 27th August. The programme includes 50 tracks of original and specially composed piano music, two CDs of music for dance sequences, one CD of songs and piano instrumentals, a DVD introduction to the concept behind the Programme with storytelling and excerpts of some of the exercises/dance sequences, teaching notes (including a breakdown of the exercises, time signature, counts, etc.) and a copy of our story book ‘Twinklesteps and the Disappearing Bird Song’. The program will allow licensed teachers to offer Dance With Twinklesteps classes in their area to help children develop a love of dance and music in a fun and imaginative way, as well as developing a good basic ballet technique from an early age.

Thanks so much to those teachers who have already pre paid for the package. Please email info@twinklesteps.com if you would like to be one of our licensed Dance With Twinklesteps teachers and offer classes in your area. Scroll down to see our FAQ’s about the dance programme:

How can the programme be used?

The programme may be used as a whole dance class programme with teachers having the opportunity to hold Twinklesteps Awards and presenting Twinklesteps certificates and medals. It is also possible to integrate the content with other dance syllabuses to add variety and as a stepping stone to the more formal exams.

Who is the programme for?

Dance with Twinklesteps has been specially developed for the 3-5 year age group. However, the content and songs such as the ‘Little Birdie’ song and ‘Birdie Dance’ also make it very possible to adapt to a younger age group. There is also sufficient progression in the programme for children up to 6 years, which could be used in which ever way the teacher structures her classes. We will be offering add on packages to licensed teachers which will offer further progression as the children develop in their ability and maturity.

The storybook will really help to set the scene and transport children into the magical world of ballet and the programme uses story-centred sequences, covering all basic steps and movements in ballet, appropriate for the age group. We know that boys love to dance too so we do have some fun dance exercises for the boys.

What’s on the CDs?

The CDs contain 50 tracks of original and specially composed piano music. Two cds of music for exercises and dance sequences, plus one cd of 11songs + piano instrumentals of four of the songs for teachers own use and choreography.

What’s on the DVD?

The DVD is an introduction to the concept behind the Dance With Twinklesteps Programme. Rather than being a technical DVD of a dance class, it demonstrates the concept through storytelling and excerpts of some of the dance/exercises sequences. With the help of a narrator, each exercise and sequence is linked into the next and excerpts from our book ‘Dance With Twinklesteps‘ are read out.

What’s in the Teaching Notes?

The teaching notes provide a breakdown of the exercises, time signature, counts,etc. They also contain some of the script linking to each exercise. This is entirely optional but teachers may find helpful to keep the theme going.

If you’re interested in purchasing the programme (price on request) or want to find out more, get in touch on info@twinklesteps.com or phone 01492 532822/07737 930818. Here’s our invitation:

If you’re interested in becoming a licensed teacher and purchasing the Dance With Twinklesteps programme here’s our contact details again:

Summer is well and truly underway, and in true British style we’re getting lots of the wet stuff as well as the hot. Whatever the weather, we thought it was time to head outside this summer with Twinklesteps and Jett’s Dance Dares. Do you dare…?

Our first dare is easy peasy – do you dare dance outside?

Wear whatever shoes you like (or no shoes at all) and have a go at dancing outside. We’re big fans of this and can guarantee you’ll have fun with all the space of your garden or park to play in. Practice your ballet moves or make something up. Dance alone, with a friend, a parent or even a pet.

Jett dares you to do an arabesque with a leaf between your toes…

This one’s a lot of fun. Find a leaf and put it between your toes (don’t go for a prickly one!). Now try and do an arabesque…is it easy or hard? If it’s super easy why not try with a leaf between every toe!

Twinklesteps dares you to make a dance obstacle course out of outside objects

Collect some twigs, stones, leaves (or anything else you find), arrange them on the ground and then make up a dance that weaves in and out of them. Add in some leaps and jumps and you’re away.

Twinklesteps and Jett dare you to dance as if you can fly.

Twinklesteps has wings and Jett has magical arm bands which help him to fly. Can you make up a dance and pretend you can fly too? Do some long graceful leaps and you might even start to fool the birds! If you’d like to make some flying wristbands of your own you can follow our craft activity here.

Finally…

Twinklesteps and Jett dare you to dance using a stick as a wand.

Everyone loves a stick and Twinklesteps and Jett are no exception. Find a good stick and pretend it’s a wand. Use your wand to help you as you dance amongst the flowers and trees, sending magic to the plants to help them grow.

Well done for giving Twinklesteps and Jett’s Dance Dares a go. We hope you enjoyed them. If you have ideas for any more Dance Dares do share them here on our blog or on our Facebook page.

We love birthdays here at Twinklesteps and know that ballet themed parties are a great way to celebrate a love of ballet and dance with all of our budding ballerinas out there. So this week we’re delighted to share with you some ideas for a Twinklesteps themed birthday party. Yey!

First off we wanted to put together some fab making and moving activities your young party goers will love (Pssst…don’t forget to scroll further down for party bag ideas from our shop).

Twinklesteps Party Activities:

1) Decorate your own ballet shoes (read more and download the template for free here).

2) Make a Twinklesteps dancing puppet (read more and download the template for free here).

3) Get everyone up and moving with these magical flying wrist bands just like Jett’s (get this craft activity here).

4) Make an imagination dance mat to get your young party goers exploring as a team (find out how here).

Twinklesteps Party Bag ideas:

Now you’ve got your activities sorted, we have all sorts of party bag ideas for you. From little purses with hair bobbles to take to ballet class, to a ballerina necklace and fairy wand. View these goodies and other fun party bag ideas over in our shop.

For a really special present for the party bag our ballet adventure story book ‘Twinklesteps and the Disappearing Birdsong’ would make a great present. You could also read the story out at the end of the party as a lovely finishing touch before home time. Click here to view it in our shop.

We hope your child has an amazing party full of fun and excitement. Let us know how it goes and what other ideas you come up with by commenting below or over on our Facebook page.

Happy Birthday to all our ballet and dance lovers out there. Love from the Twinklesteps team 🙂

We’re very excited to tell you that our exciting new dance concept ‘Dance with Twinklesteps’ is launching mid August ready for the September term. Dance with Twinklesteps is a new and exciting introduction to the world of dance and ballet for young children, encouraging the development of a love of dance and music in a fun and imaginative way.

Dance teachers will love our programme which includes:

– Detailed Teaching Notes

– CDs (approx 40 tracks)

– DVD (excerpts of dance material)

– Twinklesteps Storybook

How can the programme be used?

The programme may be used as a whole dance class programme with teachers having the opportunity to hold Twinklesteps Awards and presenting Twinklesteps certificates and medals. It is also possible to integrate the content with other dance syllabuses to add variety and as a stepping stone to the more formal exams.

Who is the programme for?

Dance with Twinklesteps has been specially developed for the 3-5 year age group. However, the content and songs such as the ‘Little Birdie’ song and ‘Birdie Dance’ also make it very possible to adapt to a younger age group. The storybook will really help to set the scene and transport children into the magical world of ballet and the programme uses story-centred sequences, covering all basic steps and movements in ballet, appropriate for the age group. We know that boys love to dance too so we do have some fun dance exercises for the boys.

What’s on the CDs?

The CDs contains over 40 tracks of specially composed music including dance exercises/sequences and songs with alternatives and choices, plus extra tracks for teachers own use and choreography.

If you’re interested in purchasing the programme (price on request) or want to find out more, get in touch on info@twinklesteps.com or phone 01492 532822/07737 930818. Hurry there’s a 10% discount if ordered on or before 14th August. Here’s our invitation:

Please help us spread the word about this exciting new dance programme by sharing this post and passing on to any dance teachers you know. Tell us what you think on our Facebook page or Twitter account.

Find out more about Twinklesteps on our website and don’t forget to get in touch on info@twinklesteps.com.

The summer sun is shining (well, sometimes!) and flowers are multiplying in the garden. If it’s not enough to make you want to dance with the birds like Twinklesteps, it might be sunny enough for some outdoor ballet inspired crafts. Today we thought we’d share with you how to make a nature ballerina with your kids. This is great fun and is an activity to try anywhere – in your garden, on the pavement, in the woods, in the park or even on the beach. All you need is a space to hunt for found objects and a bit of imagination.

Have fun collecting garden treasures and make sure you post your creations on our Facebook page. If you need some ballerina inspiration here’s Twinklesteps dancing in the garden.

This was a ballerina craft idea brought to you from the Twinklesteps team. Sign up to our newsletter to receive ballet craft and inspiration ideas straight into your inbox, as well as to be the first in the know on competitions, special offers and new products.